A relationships guide for new NYC mayor

De Blasio's handling of these relationships could impact his performance as mayor. | AP Photos

Nixon and her wife, education activist Christine Marinoni, were early supporters of de Blasio, lending him star wattage at a time when he was barely breaking double digits in the polls. Nixon also was among de Blasio’s most visible gay supporters in a campaign in which his rival, Christine Quinn, was looking to become New York’s first woman and first lesbian mayor.

Nixon was the opening speaker on stage at de Blasio’s primary night victory event. Nixon also helped organize celebrity backing for de Blasio, while Marinoni engaged progressive activists.

Text Size

-

+

reset

Nixon’s been such a vocal backer of de Blasio, whose “tale of two cities” populist campaign was critical of the Bloomberg years, that it would become instant news were she to criticize him down the road. She also represents a hybrid of constituencies — women, the LGBT community, parents of school-age children, and the city’s wealthy — that de Blasio will need to maintain strong ties to if he wants his poll numbers to stay healthy.

The Clintons

The Clintons sat in the front row at de Blasio’s inauguration for a reason: He has past connections with each of them, allegiances that mutually benefit them all.

De Blasio once worked for Bill Clinton, and he managed Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign. It was his relationships with both that helped launch his own career as an elected official, first as a city councilman from Brooklyn, and later as public advocate, a citywide job with a staff smaller than what you’d find in some restaurants.

De Blasio’s taken hits for that relatively small chief executive experience, and his sluggish transition has earned more criticism. Bill Clinton’s imprimatur could temper some of those attacks and bring an air of gravitas to the de Blasio team.

What de Blasio offers the Clintons is validation with the progressive left, which viewed Hillary Clinton with enough suspicion to sink her candidacy in the 2008 presidential primary. Before he swore in the new mayor on Wednesday, Bill Clinton said he wanted to “strongly endorse Bill de Blasio’s core campaign commitment to shared opportunities.”

Some de Blasio supporters believe the Clintons would be wise to stay in his good graces. The new mayor’s wife, Chirlane, is a Wellesley graduate like Hillary Clinton, and she could be important as an African-American woman galvanizing supporters behind a presidential candidate should Hillary Clinton decide to run in 2016.

Andrew Cuomo

There’s no such thing as a good relationship between a mayor of New York City and the governor of New York — too many competing interests, diverging constituencies and politics at cross-purposes.

But De Blasio and Cuomo have publicly and privately made assurances that their history will make their relationship different. (The governor was the mayor’s boss back when they were both working at the Department of Housing and Urban Development under then-President Bill Clinton, and they’ve remained friendly since.)

Indeed, Cuomo defended de Blasio when Bloomberg criticized how the candidate used his family in the campaign, and the governor endorsed de Blasio immediately after the primary.

Cuomo’s father, Mario, had his own strange history with New York City mayors — after losing to Ed Koch in the 1977 mayoral primary, he beat Koch for the gubernatorial nomination in 1982, and their relationship was never close. But demonstrating how important the connection between City Hall and Albany can be, Rudy Giuliani — a Republican then in his first year — crossed party lines to endorse Mario Cuomo in the 1994 general election, citing city needs. Not surprisingly, that set off years of bad blood between Giuliani and the man who beat Mario Cuomo, George Pataki.

Having Andrew Cuomo in charge in Albany won’t necessarily mean de Blasio will get whatever he wants. For instance, the new mayor will need state help to get the tax hike to pay for his universal pre-kindergarten promise, something Cuomo may resist at as he looks to burnish his moderate credentials while gearing up for a reelection campaign surrounded by speculation about his possible plans for a 2016 presidential run.

De Blasio will have a chance to pay his respects in a week at Cuomo’s State of the State address on Jan. 8. There the new mayor also can make the rounds at the receptions following the speech, events that are hosted by major players in the state capital.

Elizabeth Warren

So far, de Blasio and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have come as a set in many people’s minds, even though it doesn’t appear they have any sort of personal or professional relationship.

He’s a progressive populist, she’s a progressive populist, and they’re both tapping into something deeper going on in the left that many in the Democratic Party, including the president, are trying to catch up to. Many de Blasio supporters see his election as part of a continuum with Warren’s and the 2010 win of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman — who presided over de Blasio’s initial swearing-in just after midnight — of politics bending more to their brand of progressivism.

Both have ambitions for a national spotlight that’s only so big, and that’s without getting into the actual questions of politics and policy that the two will face.

Any issue where one speaks out ahead of the other could immediately set off speculation of a rivalry, while any issue where there seems to be the tiniest ray of daylight between them could be trumped into a progressive civil war. For a brand of politics that’s for the first time attempting to evolve from running outsider campaigns to actually being in power, the potential for pitfalls is huge.

How each approaches Hillary Clinton in particular could test the national ambitions for both. De Blasio has cleaved close to the former secretary of state. Some progressives hope that Warren will run against her for president, despite the Massachusetts senator’s repeated denials of interest.